Virus strain to cause more deaths in Britain; mutated COVID strain 56% more contagious -study

Written by DCY on

More in Europe:

Police officers stand on duty at beneath a sign reading “Testing to Commence”, at the entrance to the Port of Dover in Kent, south east England, on December 23, 2020, where COVID-19 testing is set to begin on drivers who have been queueing to leave the UK. – France and Britain reopened cross-Channel travel on Wednesday after a 48-hour ban to curb the spread of a new coronavirus variant but London has warned it could take days for thousands of trucks blocked around the port of Dover to get moving. (Photo by JUSTIN TALLIS / AFP)

 

PARIS, France (AFP) — A mutated coronavirus strain spreading in Britain is on average 56 percent more contagious than the original version, scientists have warned in a study, urging a fast vaccine rollout to help prevent more deaths.

The new variant, which emerged in southeast England in November and is spreading fast, is likely to boost hospitalisations and deaths from Covid next year, according to the study published Wednesday by the Centre for Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Researchers, focusing on the English south east, east and London, said it was still uncertain whether the mutated strain was more or less deadly than its predecessor.

“Nevertheless, the increase in transmissibility is likely to lead to a large increase in incidence, with Covid-19 hospitalisations and deaths projected to reach higher levels in 2021 than were observed in 2020, even if regional tiered restrictions implemented before 19 December are maintained,” they said.

The authors warned that a national lockdown imposed in England in November was unlikely to prevent an increase of infections “unless primary schools, secondary schools, and universities are also closed”.

Any easing of control measures, meanwhile, would likely prompt “a large resurgence of the virus”.

Passengers arrive at the Eurostar International Departures hall at St Pancras International station in London on December 23, 2020, as services prepare to resume following a 48 hour closure of the French border, due to a new coronavirus strain being discovered in the UK. – French Transport Minister Jean-Baptiste Djebarri also confirmed that air travel, boats and Eurostar trains would “resume service as of tomorrow morning”. “French nationals, people living in France and those with a legitimate reason will have to be carrying a negative test,” he said. (Photo by Tolga Akmen / AFP)

This meant that “it may be necessary to greatly accelerate vaccine roll-out to have an appreciable impact in suppressing the resulting disease burden”.

In announcing more stringent lockdown measures over the December holiday, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Saturday the new viral strain “may be up to 70 percent more transmissible than the original version of the disease”.

Britain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson leaves after attending a virtual press conference inside 10 Downing Street in central London on December 21, 2020, after a string of countries banned travellers and all but unaccompanied freight arriving from the UK, due to the rapid spread of a new, more-infectious coronavirus strain. – Countries around the world closed their borders to Britain Monday in a race to contain a fast-spreading variant of the coronavirus as the European Union neared approval of its first jab for the bloc’s vaccination campaign. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson held a crisis meeting about the situation Monday, with particular concern about the disruption of goods from France, which imposed a 48-hour blockade on people and lorries crossing the English Channel. (Photo by Tolga Akmen / POOL / AFP)

The discovery of the new strain set off alarm bells worldwide just as more countries began vaccination campaigns to halt a pandemic that has claimed more than 1.7 million lives since it emerged a year ago in China.

Many countries quickly imposed bans on travel from Britain, but EU governments have since begun to relax the restrictions.

The co-founder of BioNTech — one of the firms behind the vaccine that is being rolled out worldwide this week — has said its drug is “highly likely” to work against the mutated strain detected in Britain and otherwise can be adapted in six weeks.


© Agence France-Presse